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PAMPHLETH 
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THE  COUITTRY  CHURCH 


Volume  3 


6  3  0.30* 

%  3 

v.  3 


Federal  council  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  What  every  church  should  know  about 
its  community, 

General  Association  of  Congregational  Churches 
of  Massachusetts,  Advance  reports  of  various 
committees,  1908  and  1909 

McElfresh,  F,  The  country  Sunday  school 

McTTutt,  M.  B.  Modern  methods  in  the  country  church 

McUutt ,  M,  B.  A  post-graduate  school  with  a  purpose 

Massachusetts  Federation  of  Churches,  Quarterly 
"bulletin.  Facts  and  factors.  October  1910 
"The   part  of  the  church  in  rural  progress  as 
discussed  at  the  Amherst  Conference." 

Root,  E,  T.  State  federations 

Taft,  A,  B.  The  mistress  of  the  rural  manse 

Taf t ,  A.  B.  The  tent  mission 

Taylor,  G.  Basis  for  social  evangelism  with  rural 
applications 

Wells,  G.  F.  An  answer  to  the  New  England  country 
church  question, 

Wells,  G.  F.  What  our  country  churches  need 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  church  and  the  transient 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Conservation  of  boys 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church 

Wilson,  W,  H.  The  country  church  program 

Wilson,  W,  H.  Don't  breathe  on  the  thermometer 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  farmers*  church  and  the  farmers' 
^2  college 

CO 

co  Wilson,  W.  H.  Getting  the  worker  to  church 
03 


Wilson,  W.  H.  The  girl  on  the  farm 

Wilson 9  W.  H.  How  to  manage  a  country  life 
institute 

Wilson,  W.  II,  "Marrying  the  land." 

Wilson,  W.  H.  1T0  need  to  "be  poor  in  the  country 

Wilson,  W*  H.  Synod's  opportunity 

Wilson,  W.  H.  What  limits  the  rural  Evangel 


•  «   «   H  9 


The  church  and  country  life.   Pamphlet  issued 
by  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Presby* 
terian  Church* 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  Member  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/dontbreatheonthe03wils 


DON'T  BREATHE  ON  THE  THERMOMETER 
Warren  H.  Wilson,  Ph,  D. 


The  state  of  the  country  church  is  a  good 
register  of  the  state  of  country  life.   Churches 
respond  to  any  deficit  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
people.   They  record  to  a  nicety  the  economic  and 
social  experiences  of  the  population  in  which  they 
stand*   Throughout  the  Middle  States ,  the  country 
churches  exhibit  at  the  present  time,  the  evidence 
of  industrial  disturbance.   They  are  affected  by 
the  retirement  of  farmers  from  the  countryside  to 
the  towns  and  by  the  wrong  methods  of  agri culture , 
which  have  impoverished  the  community  life  in  the 
farming  sections, 

Some  ministers  think  to  remedy  this  condition 
by  reviving  the  church  alone,   When  I  was  a  boy,  I 
remember  breathing  on  the  thermometer.   It  had  the 
effect  of  heating  up  the  thermometer  for  a  time, 
but  it  did  not  improve  the  weather,  and  the  mercury 
fell  immediately  afterward  to  as  low  a  figure  as  be-  j 
fore.   The  only  way to  revive  the  country  church  is 
to  revive  the  rural  community.   Christian  people 
are  bound  to  warm  up  the  town  who  assist  in  the  re- 
vival of  rural  prosperity.   Then  the  temperature  of 
the  church  will  rise  and  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
whole  people  will  partake  of  the  social  prosperity 
which  has  been  effected  in  the  community. 

For  this  purpose  the  missionary  agencies  of 
our  churches  are  working  in  the  Eastern  States  in 
close  co-operation  with  agricultural  experts.  Such 
men  as  Gifford  Pinchot,  President  of  the  Conserva- 
tion Commission;  L, H.Bailey,  Dean  of  the  Agricultural; 
Department  of  Cornell;  Kenyon  L,  Butterfield,  Presi- 
dent of  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College;  Harry 
Hayward,  Director  of  the  Agricultural  Department  of 
Delaware  College,  are  acting  in  recognition  of *the 
principle  stated  by  a  great  agricultural  editor; 
"There  will  never  be  a  revival  of  rural  prosperity 
without  a  revival  of  religion. w 

"The  One  Day  Conferences  on  the  Country  Church",  i 
which  are  being  held  in  the  great  agricultural 

centres  by  the  Presbyterian  Department  of  Church 
and  Labor,  express  this  co-operation  of  all  interests 
for  the  revival  of  the  rural  community.   It  is  not 
enough  that  the  soil  be  made  more  productive,  nor 


even  is  it  enough  that  the  farmer  shall  secure  bet- 
ter profits.   The  social  life  of  the  country  communi- 
ty must  be  itself  elevated,  and  to  effect  this  all 
who  have  to  do  with  the  life  of  the  people  in  the 
country  must  work  together . 

This  co-operation  is  based  on  the  fact  that 
country  Jlife  is  one.   The  whole  country  community 
meets  and  is  embodied  in  each  resident  in  the  country 
town  or  farming  section.   It  is  impossible  to  secure 
even  agricultural  prosperity  or  increased  profits 
without  a  better  country  church  and  a  better  country 
school.  < 

The  duty  of  the  Church  in  this  emergency  is  the   i 
duty  of  agitation.   Religious  people  must  be  brought   I 
to  the  acceptance  of  a  higher  standard  of  country 
life.   Scientific  agriculture  itself  is  the  beginning 
in  this  higher  standard.   A  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
country  population  is9  however ,  the  Church's  great 
duty  for  without  the  supreme  sanction  of  religious 
institutions  the  improved  country  school  will  never 
come  into  general  favor |  and  without  the  approval 
and  forwarding  of  the  country  church  scientific  ag- 
riculture will  always  labor  under  the  stinted  ap- 
proval which  has  come  to  the  farmers*  institute  in 
the  past.   ^J^is  the  duty  of  the  country  church  to 
di re c_t__the ..highest  social  and  economic  life  of  the 
countrxJ5_QJ?ulation»   This  duty  from  her  own  point 
of  view  means  the  problem  of  actual  survival.  But 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  community  as  a  whole ,  it 
is  the  largest  religious  problem  that  can  be  pre- 
sented to  ministers  and  officers  of  country  churches. 


